The Palme d’Or of la77e edition of the Cannes Film Festival is awarded to American filmmaker Sean Baker for his film Anora. Overview of the prize list.
Palme d’Or
“All my life, my goal has been to go to Cannes”: director Sean Baker did better by winning the Palme d’Or on Saturday with Anoraa film about a sex worker, an environment that fascinates him.
This is not the first time that the 53-year-old American, with his youthful appearance, has been selected for Cannes. But this time the Festival tasted the vitality of its thriller which moves from the underbelly of New York to the luxury villas of Russian oligarchs.
This 2024 version of Cinderella’s tale is served by a revelation, actress Mikey Madison, in the role of a sex worker.
A consecration for an independent filmmaker like him, who hatched late and ate mad cow for a long time before making a name for himself.
“This film is magnificent, full of humanity […] He broke our hearts,” declared the president of the jury and director of barbieGreta Gerwig, before presenting him with the prize.
Grand Prize: “All We Imagine as Light” Payal Kapadia
Jury prize: “Emilia Perez” by Jacques Audiard
“With crazy mastery, mind-blowing music and fabulous performances, the director ofa prophet tells the sung and danced destinies of a repentant trans drug trafficker, and her lawyer ally,” wrote our journalist François Lévesque after the screening.
Best Director Award: “Grand Tour” by Miguel Gomes
“Between postcolonial reflection and cinematic reverie, [le cinéaste portugais] takes us on a journey through different countries on the Asian continent […]could we read in a report of the Duty earlier this week. Filmed in overexposed black and white with a slightly chalky finish, for an aged finish, the film alternates between reconstructions of periods with an assumed DIY side and current images. The plot unfolds indifferently, fluidly, in this kind of timelessness, of “suspended time”. »
Special jury prize: “The seeds of the wild fig tree”
Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof received a special jury prize this Saturday for his film The seeds of the wild fig tree, after managing to clandestinely flee the mullahs’ regime.
The prize is a symbol of support for Iranian artists victims of repression and a consecration for a director who defied censorship for decades before resolving into exile.
“Let me spare a thought for all the members of my team who are not with me to celebrate this award. My cinematographer, number of technicians, who are under pressure. Above all, my heart is with them,” declared Mohammad Rasoulof upon receiving his award.
“My people live every day under a regime that has taken them hostage,” continued the director, wishing to “salute all these young women whose boundless courage made this film possible.”
Common Female Actor Prize
The actresses of Jacques Audiard’s musical Emilia Perezincluding transgender actress Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldana, received a joint female performance award.
Karla Sofía Gascón, who began her gender transition at 46, is the revelation of this film in which she plays the main role, that of a drug trafficker who feels deeply female and changes gender. She is the first transgender actress to receive this award.
She dedicated her Best Actress Award to “all trans people who suffer.”
“I want these people to be able to believe as in Emilia Perez that it is always possible to improve,” she said on stage.
Best Actor Award: Jesse Plemons
The American Jesse Plemons was awarded the Best Actor Prize for his role in Kinds of Kindness by the Greek Yorgos Lanthimos.
He was not on stage to collect his prize. In the sketch film, Jesse Plemons, 36, is manipulated by a devious Willem Dafoe: he plays an ordinary executive whose daily routine goes up in smoke when his charismatic boss asks him to commit an irreparable act.
Screenplay prize: “The Substance” by Coralie Fargeat
“Demi Moore stars in this bloody film, a die-hard allegory of female ageism and internalized misogyny by Coralie Fargeat, who impressed in 2017 with the subversive revenge. With its explosions of “gore” and its uninhibited grand-guignol outbursts, The Substance is sure to amaze and outrage in equal measure,” noted our journalist François Lévesque.